Wine Spectator honors yet another Durango restaurant: Cosmopolitan

Meredith Saver is a bartender at Cosmo Bar & Dining, which earned a 2012 award from Wine Spectator magazine.

ISAIAH BRANCH-BOYLE/Durango Herald

Meredith Saver is a bartender at Cosmo Bar & Dining, which earned a 2012 award from Wine Spectator magazine.

The Durango four are now the Durango five.

Chris Crowl and James Allred, partners at Cosmo Bar & Dining, earned a 2012 Award of Excellence from that chronicler of all things wine, the magazine Wine Spectator. Again.

The fine dining restaurant on Main Avenue garnered the recognition of the magazine in 2010, but missed out in 2011 because of late paperwork.

They also missed out on being included in the July 4 article in The Durango Herald about Durango’s wine award winners because it went to press before the new awards were announced. (In case you missed it, too, the other four are Guido’s Favorite Foods, Ken & Sue’s, Mahogany Grille and Seasons Rotisserie & Grill, all of which kept their awards in the new listing.)

Cosmo is back, and its owners are gratified to return to the fold of restaurants with notable wine offerings.

“It’s great to have exposure on a national level, to get that little bit of recognition,” Crowl said.

The restaurant never stopped doing what it does to make wine accessible to its customers – offering 18 wines by the glass, training waiters in the different tastes and flavors of wine and including affordable wines from countries like Chile, Spain and New Zealand.

And well, let’s not forget the food. Crowl carries a California sensibility that food should be absolutely fresh and as local possible, sourcing whatever he can from area farms, from lettuce to corn to beef. The grilled filet with wild mushrooms and creamed spinach practically shouts for a bottle of Cabernet Carmenere from Chile that Allred calls a great value at $85 for such a velvety, full-bodied red blend.

Meanwhile, malbec is the hot wine of the moment at Cosmo, with Argentinean varieties in particular favor, and the original French version always in style. For himself, Allred is enjoying a light red from the mountainous Priorat region of Spain.

“It’s a fun, easy-drinking wine for summer,” he said.

Also for summer (Allred changes his wines by the glass weekly) might be a super crisp Vinho Verde from Portugal by Aveleda Fonte for $7 or a fresh, slightly floral Cotes de Provence Rose by Chateau du Rouet for $9.

Wine is in season any time of year, of course, and the Durango five are happy to help us enjoy it.